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Part 1: Let’s Get Gardening in July

By Jennifer Fairfield, owner Garden Mill

(Publisher’s note: This column will run for three consecutive days.)

I took a week away from the store last week, and I had a great time working in my yard and gardens. I got such a sense of accomplishment from all that I got done. Of course, there’s always more to do, but at least for a brief moment, I can feel like I am (almost) caught up.

Below are some tips to help you stay caught up in your yard and gardens:
In the vegetable garden:

July is the time when many insect pests are really wreaking havoc on vegetable gardens, so let’s talk about how to deal with them.

First – it’s important to know that there isn’t a one-size-fits all solution. You need to know what’s eating your plants so you can be sure to use the proper controls.

Here are some of the ones that might be causing you problems (and if there’s something eating your plants that I’m not covering here, please feel free to email, call, or stop in, and I will try to help you find a solution to what’s bugging your plants):

Aphids generally hang out in large groups at the tips of stems (they like succulent, new growth best) and on the undersides of leaves. Aphids come in lots of colors, including green, black, yellow, orange, red, and white. A good squirt or two of insecticidal soap is all it takes to neutralize these pests, but you need to spray them directly for it to be effective. Spray them as soon as you see them. Aphids reproduce at an amazing rate, and can do a lot of damage if left to their own devices.

Photo by Jennifer Fairfield. Cabbage Moth Caterpillar.

Cabbage moth caterpillars can easily be picked off of your plants and squashed. The hard part is finding them. Look for them on the undersides of the leaves (though they may also be on the tops), and look really closely – they are experts at camouflage. Even if you find one or two, there may be more that you miss, so check back again in a day or two. One clue to where to find them is to look for their excrement. If you see fresh green-black pellets on the leaves, the caterpillars are likely nearby. If you’ve got too many to pick off and squish (or the thought of doing so makes you cringe), Bt insecticide is an effective killer. Just be aware that Bt kills all caterpillars – including butterfly and moth caterpillars – so use it very carefully.

Colorado Potato Beetle eat the leaves of tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant, as well as potatoes (and tobacco, but I’m guessing not too many of us are growing tobacco). They are difficult to control because they have developed resistance to almost all pesticides. It’s actually the older larvae (what are known as the 4th instar) that do the majority of the damage, and potato plants are at their most vulnerable as they are forming potato tubers (around the time of flowering).

Photo by Jennifer Fairfield. Colorado Potato Beetle.

In general, the best way to control these pests is to start as soon as you see any sign of them – before you get overwhelmed by numbers of them. Picking adult beetles and larvae off of your plants and dropping them into a bucket of soapy water is the most effective treatment. If you have to resort to pesticides, neem oil and spinosad are the most effective treatments available – chemical treatments just don’t work – but they are really only effective when the larvae are in early stages of growth. Try one, and if that stops working, try the other.

Cucumber Beetles come in two different versions – yellow with black strips and yellow with black spots – but the striped ones tend to be more prevalent in our area. These pests are a real problem for most plants in the cucurbit family (summer squash, winter squash, melons, pumpkins, and cucumbers – cucumbers being their favorites) in three different ways.

First, the adult beetles eat the leaves and flowers of the plants, causing stunting of the plants and keeping your plants from producing fruit. Second, the adults can carry bacterial wilt disease as they travel from garden to garden. Third, the larvae of the beetles feed on the roots of plants. Very young plants are the most susceptible to cucumber beetles, so really keep an eye out early in the life of your plants. Insecticides have not proven to be very effective against them, but row covers and insect netting can be, as long as they are secured to keep the adults from getting under them – just be sure to remove the covers when your plants start to flower, so that they can be pollinated.

Photo by Jennifer Fairfield. Flea Beetles.

Flea beetles and Mexican bean beetles are a difficult to deal with, because they are escape artists. Flea beetles are tiny, black beetles that eat tiny holes in the leaves of your plants – it looks like somebody shot your plants with a bb gun. They eat a number of different plants, and are hard to spot.

Mexican bean beetles pretty much just stick to eating bean plants. They are the size of ladybugs, and actually look a lot like ladybugs, but are generally yellow to orange in color, and always have exactly 16 black spots on their wings – 8 on each wing. Ladybugs, on the other hand, come in a variety of colors, but generally have fewer spots. Both flea beetles and Mexican bean beetles jump really far, really fast, when they are threatened, so trying to spray them is not very effective.

However, diatomaceous earth can be effective against these critters. Controlling both of these creatures is important – flea beetles can spread diseases to your plants, and Mexican bean beetles can decimate bean crops in short order.

Japanese Beetles are definitely one of the most hated garden pests. While they are a problem in both Vegetable gardens and flower gardens, I’ll address those below, in the flower garden section.

Slugs are one of my least favorite creatures in the garden. Aside from the fact that they’re slimy and gross, they can do a lot of damage in the garden. Slugs mostly feed at night, because they dry out too easily in the sun. So, if you are seeing lots of damage to your plants that seems to show up overnight, and you can’t find any insects, you probably have slugs.

If you look under your mulch, you might actually see them hiding there (they also really like lettuce, and you can often find them within the leaves). These guys, because they stay hidden most of the time, can be hard to control. Diatomaceous earth, which can be sprinkled around the plants, is one option. It is scratchy, and will shred the soft bodies of the slugs as they try to get to your plants. You can also use window screening, cut into circles, and placed at the base of your plants. Slugs generally avoid anything scratchy, so will stay away from screening.

Photo by Jennifer Fairfield. Squash Vineborer Moth.

Squash bugs and Squash vine borers are both very destructive of summer squash, winter squash, and pumpkins (and sometimes cucumbers and melons). Of the two, squash vine borers do the most damage, and are the hardest to control. Two things can be effective in preventing the squash vine borer moth from laying eggs on your plants. The first is row covers. Cover squash plants with row covers or insect netting now, and secure them so that the adult moths can’t get under them (that’s one of them in my garden in this picture). Leave covers in place for about 2 weeks (though remove them sooner, if your plants are flowering, so that the flowers can be pollinated).

The second option is to wrap tin foil over the base of the stems of your plants. This helps to deter the adult moth from laying eggs. Neither method is foolproof, so keep any eye out for the eggs. Look for tiny, reddish-brown dots on the stems. Scrape them off carefully, so that you don’t damage the plant, and drop them into a bucket of water.

Squash bugs generally lay their eggs in clusters on the undersides of leaves. You can scrape them off, or simply remove the leaf itself, and drop in water. If you miss the eggs, you may see the nymphs – gray/green little bugs that scurry across the leaves in large groups. Those can best be treated with neem oil.

(Part 2 will publish tomorrow.)

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